


The Scent of Burning Wood

by DustySoul



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, Karen's Past, Trans Character, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 16:30:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4571589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustySoul/pseuds/DustySoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karen has one final secret to tell. It's about her past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Scent of Burning Wood

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this prompt on the kinkmeme: http://daredevilkink.dreamwidth.org/2760.html?thread=5696456#cmt5696456

They're having another of their strange, sporadic office dinners. Karen’s desk is pushed off to the side in favor of making space for the folding table and chairs. 

She’s been stress cooking from a crock pot all day - a mostly pointless effort once everything has been sliced, measured, mixed, and left to simmer. All her nervous fluttering served to do was waft the aroma of the stew across the small office.

It had been Foggy who insisted they have dinner together when Karen, awkwardly, clumsily, ashamedly, tried to take the crock pot home. “Yeah, sure, why not?” He’d said, blasé and casual, “A change of pace would be nice.”

And it wasn’t a guarantee that Matt would join them, but this time he smiled his sun shine smile and agreed.

Which is how they end up sitting around a cramped and flimsy table, eating stew from paper bowls.

Matt asks her about the recipe.

Foggy banters.

It’s small talk. She responds automatically but the knot which has been sitting in her stomach all day doesn’t loosen. She doesn’t eat, just pushes around the contents of her bowl with her spoon until it’s gone cold.

She thinks about the last time they’d done this. It had been after taking down Fisk. Or, more precisely, it had been after their first client came to them because of their involvement in taking down the King Pin. But it's the same thing, in the end. They just needed time, all of them.

And god… she could use more time.

But the past’s caught up to her. And there’s nothing she can do. No more stalling.

And Matt and Foggy don’t know why they’re doing this again. _Are we celebrating?_ They must be wondering, _Or are we keeping Karen company while she avoids going home._

It isn’t that she’s scared to go. Or, well, it is. It’s just that this time, she’s not afraid someone is waiting their to kill her.

It’s just that Jacob had found her. And god, what she wouldn’t give to know how Jacob had found her.

She didn’t need to disappear, not this time, not again. At least she hopes so.

She clears her throat and can feel her heart race. “So,” She says, “I have something to tell you.”

It comes out strange and her chest hurts.

Foggy had been, very subtly, encouraging her to speak with his eyes. Now he isn’t being subtle about it.

And Matt was doing the same thing, come to think about it. Not with the shape of his eyes or the slant of his brows, of course. But in the slump of his shoulders and the almost delicate, open way he holds his frame.

They were both saying, “Go on, we’re listening.” Without interrupting or pressuring her.

“I… wasn’t always… Karen.” She says. And when she says her name it doesn’t sound like her name. And her voice doesn’t sound like her voice. 

“A… um… A man from before… he… tracked me down…” She chokes on her words, and takes a deep, heaving breath, to try and go on.

“Has he threatened you?” Matt asks, and somehow, his words, without unsettling his usual calm and collected tone speak to some violence he is prepared to unleash against her stalker.

Karen shakes her head while she struggles to speak. “Not um… His being here, hanging about my apartment, it um… it kind of implies...”

She tries to take another breath, but chokes on it. She tries again, and says, “He um… he wants to ruin me. He’s wanted to for a long time. He’ll try to get my friends to abandon me. He’ll try to get me fired…”

 She has to settle herself again. Only to start hyperventilating again once she tries to speak.

Foggy reaches out to her.

Matt says, “Do you even officially work here?”

And Karen bursts into hysterical laughter.  “I didn’t… say… it was a very good… plan.” She manages to get out.

She grasps Foggy’s hand.

“What is it?” He asks her.

“I’m trans.” She says. She struggles not to start crying again, looking first to Matt, then to Foggy. (Who is looking at Matt.)

“Thank you for confiding in us.” Matt says, he reaches out. She gives him her other hand.

“We wouldn’t fire you over that.”

She’d kind of known that.

“Neither would we abandon you.”

She’d kind of known that, too.

“It seems so stupid.” She says, sniffing, “To get so worked up. I mean, clearly it um-”

They both squeeze her hand.

“Not at all.” Matt says. While Foggy says, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Sharing secrets is always difficult and frightening. Even if you have to, or it’s for the best.”

Foggy starts talking about restraining orders.

When she looks back at Matt she can tell he thinks a restraining order is insufficient. She can also tell that DareDevil will be patrolling around her apartment complex a little more often in the weeks to come.

She squeezes his hand again.

He smiles. It’s not his sun shine smile, but something that feels more real.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to message or follow me on tumblr at dusty-soul.tumblr.com


End file.
